Mystery of Faith

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Readings: Exodus 24:3-8; Psalm 116; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

When the priest of the Most High God came to meet Abraham, he brought out bread and wine. Melchizedek met Abraham before the patriarch could meet the king of Sodom, Bera, whose name can be translated as “in evil”. (Gen 14:17-18). That encounter with Melchizedek prepared Abraham for the meeting with Bera, the king of evil. Life offers many examples of people facing evil in their lives. Only those strengthened by their encounters with the priests of God the Most High, who bring out the Body and Blood of the Lord, are able to overcome it.

When Israel came out of Egypt, their daily food during the journey through the desert was the bread of angels (Ps. 78:25). That bread accompanied them all the way to the promised land. Our life can also be likened to a journey through the desert. Our life are marked by trouble and sorrow, “they pass by speedily and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Our destination is the heavenly Jerusalem and on this journey the bread from heaven nourishes us. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). If we want to complete our journey, we need to draw strength from this bread of angels, the Body of Christ that is the true food (John 6:55).

When Elijah got depressed and begged God for death, the angel of the Lord prepared food for him, “and with the strength of that meal he walked forty days and forty nights as far as the mountain of God at Horeb” (1 Kings 19:8). Jesus Christ gave himself for us to strengthen us on our pilgrimage to God. He leads us out of depression, pours into us true life and gives us strength to overcome all kinds of difficulties. We need to rediscover the enormous power of this Bread of Life.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51). The bread and wine become the Body and the Blood of the Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit and the efficacy of the Word of Christ. During the consecration, the priest prays with the words: “Make holy these gifts by sending down your Spirit upon them, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then he repeats the words that Christ spoken in the Upper Room before His Passion. “It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God’s. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered” (Saint John Chrysostom, in CCC 1375).

Probably no one has better captured the profound beauty of this mystery of faith than St. Thomas Aquinas in his famous Eucharistic hymn “Adoro Te Devote”. Let the words of this song accompany us in today’s celebration:

I devoutly adore you, O hidden Deity,

Truly hidden beneath these appearances.

My whole heart submits to you,

And in contemplating you, It surrenders itself completely.

Sight, touch, taste are all deceived in their judgment of you,

But hearing suffices firmly to believe.

I believe all that the Son of God has spoken;

There is nothing truer than this word of truth.